flow and sensuality in our dance and also the relaxed and took in the exceptional artistry of
technicalities of neat turns and balance trans- the film and its soothing music.
fer. I learnt some great little hops, framing tech-
niques, accents and an effective breakdown of The finale night celebrated the 50th anniversary
the Haggala or shimmy walk. of the Reda Troupe and gave a colourful and
lively display from the Troupe, featuring a grace-
Overall, the workshop with Farida gave me a ful classical dance from Nesrin and a series of
real taste of the earthy, empowered and grace- themed stylised dances from the group. Bouncy,
ful style of Egyptian stage dance as pioneered entertaining Fellahin, Ghawazi, Alexandrian and
in the mid to late 1900’s The style is what I refer Saiidi dances kept us warm on another fresh
to as Raqs Sharki in that it has a balletic feel winter night at Barry’s restaurant under the mag-
with soft flourishes of flamenco style, Egyptian ical presence of the pyramids. Additional perfor-
folk dance influences and also the refined and mances at the finale came from; Spains Devo-
exciting hip and belly moves of the Ghawazi en- rah Korek with an elaborate veil and zill dance,
tertainers. I left Farida’s workshop inspired to Australian A-Z Master Instructor and Oriental
keep learning but also to keep improvising! dancer Suzanne Oehlers with a relaxed and fun
Baladi piece, Macedonian Paola Blanton with
Leslie Zehr – author of The Alchemy of Dance, a dramatic and hypnotic fusion of her oriental
lead an afternoon session of great interest to dance and Isadora Duncan styles and Damiana
many of the dancers at the festival. Leslie took Levy from Ecuador with a charming fan dance.
us back to a moment of initiation she had at a
sacred Egyptian site and how that had a piv- The Sphinx Festival brought so many people to-
otal influence on her development as a dancer, gether in a premiere convergence of Egyptian
healer and creative channel. Leslies work re- arts. ‘I met so many fabulous people from all
volves around more than I can say in this piece over the world - I know that this experience will
but a large part of her work involves working have so many pleasant reverberations in the
with archetypes in dance and in particular she years to come! Only one question: When’s the
refers to The Tarot. Her key message is to ‘let next one?’ says Lana Diamond from UK. ‘Every-
the divine move through you’. Leslie practices one on the course was so friendly and welcom-
sacred dance which she describes as a ‘Path ing; it was a fantastic, warm experience and one
to the Universal Dancer,’ Dance, says Leslie is which I would love to repeat.’ echoes Cherry
an analogy to the greater dance of the universe from Wales.
and allows us to learn flow and how to navigate
through the lessons of life with surrender and Organiser Keti praised the speakers and work-
beauty. Her book is a pivotal read for anyone shop leaders on how ‘they integrated universal
interested in belly dance as a sacred act of self principals and ethics into their subjects, high-
development and as a way to celebrate and el- lighting the sacred aspects of the arts in Egypt.’
evate your relationship to the Divine Feminine. Sphinx 2010 is planned for Dec 1-5th 2010 and
will be themed to Egypt’s Folkloric Arts and Eth-
Just how could the spirit day become anymore nology.
spiritual? Jennifer Carmen concluded the day’s
events by giving another of her Sacred Geom- See
www.sphinxfestival.com for further informa-
etry talks. This time we focused on transcen- tion on all speakers and workshops leaders.
dence and what that meant to us individually.
We looked at the shape of transcendence as a Article by Guinevere Clark
www.baubo.co.uk
triangle. The day was rounded off in a ‘hot off
the press’ film showing of Sacred Geometry in Photography by Omar Kamel - musician, writer,
beautiful orchestration. We watched circles, tri- and media producer -
http://karmamole.com
angles, decagons, dodecagons and many other
‘perfect forms’ dance and fuse in a spectacu-
lar illustration of the geometry that as Jennifer
describes ‘is the matter of all things.’ The film © 2010 NAFOURA Magazine, all rights re-
showing was a wonderful end to the festival; we served, copying is not permitted.
15
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